Burns all the books you want, Nazi punks

[seemslikeadream]

Wikileaks Calls US Pentagon ‘Nazi Punks,’ Threatens New Leak
By Alex Moore Monday, September 27, 2010

3
Wikileaks, the international internet organization for leaking controversial information, has a new trick up its sleeve.


An ominous tweet from Wikileaks about “Operation Dark Heart.”

On Sunday the international leaking machine tweeted the message: “Burn all the books you want, Nazi punks. We already have a copy.”

The “Nazi punks” in question are the US Pentagon’s Department of Defense, and the books in question are the 10,000 first-run copies of the new memoir “Operation Dark Heart,” which the Department of Defense bought and promptly burned on September 20.

After imploring the publisher of “Operation Dark Heart,” by former Army Reserve Office Anthony Shaffer, not to publish the book on the grounds that it revealed national security secrets and having the publisher refuse, citing its first amendment rights, the Pentagon sought an alternate solution, buying the entire first run and burning it. Subsequent pressings will have blacked-out text which the Pentagon can impose on material they deem to be classified.

Since 9/11 American attitudes have dictated that security—at least our best effort at security—is more important than transparency. It’s an idea that justified all kinds of exceptions to American transparency that we would have otherwise objected to—from the Patriot Act allowing us to spy on citizens to holding suspects at Guantanamo without charging them with anything.

Underlying these transgressions from American ideals was the assumption that they were necessary to save American lives—and lives trump ideals.

But the arrival of Wikileaks as a nationless, allegiance-less force for propagating free press may expose a whole new possibility: Is the Pentagon censorship machine a benevolent protector or a bunch of “Nazi punks”? Is information suppressed because it truly needs to be, or because it’ll allow unethical operations to continue?

In the past we’ve never known, because our government had no higher authority—when it wanted information suppressed, it stayed suppressed. But in the age of Wikileaks, information truly wants to be free.

“Someone buying 10,000 books to suppress a story in this digital age is ludicrous,” Shaffer told CNN—and he’s right. Burning 10,000 books won’t suppress that information any more than Terry Jones burning Qu’rans will damper that work’s influence around the world.

One one hand it does seems strange that WIkileaks markets its leaks with tweets like the one above, especially when the US government is hell-bent on keeping the information our of circulation.

But for the first time it does provide an objective look at what information the Pentagon deems unsafe for publishing. “When you look at what they took out (in the 2nd edition), it’s lunacy,” Shaffer says.

For better or worse, it seems there’s no such thing as state secrets any more. In an age when everyone’s a critic, we’ll all be able to judge for ourselves whether this information should have stayed classified, or whether our government is indeed behaving like “Nazi punks,” as Wikileaks asserts.

Unless, of course, this plot trajectory plays out the way it would in any good action film, and Wikileaks director Julian Assange quietly disappears, or dies peacefully in his sleep. Although, should that happen, you can bet there’d be a Wikileak with a revealing autopsy in no time.

[barracuda]

Dead Kennedys - Nazi Punks Fuck Off, Brixton Academy 12/2/1982

The guy in the crowd at the beginning says:

"Look at this fuckin' punk spectacle! Diving on the stage. It's all a publicity show for the television camera's. YOU FUCKERS!!! You're all part of the punk spectacle. Everyone of you with a fuckin' Mohican haircut and colored hair... I'M PART OF IT AS WELL. I'm the only one who can say anything. We've gotta do something! BURN A FUCKING BANK, AND SAME FOR THE MARKET. TAKE OVER CONTROL!!!"

[§ê¢rꆧ]

I dunno. This almost seems too pat. The whole Wikileaks thing, I mean. It feels like manufactured opposition. Only time will tell.

[seemslikeadream]

Taking Fire

The Book the Pentagon Burned

By DAVID SWANSON

The Pentagon spent $50,000 of our money to buy up the first edition of "Operation Dark Heart" by Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and destroy every copy. The second printing has lots of words blacked out. Wikileaks claims to have a first edition, but hasn't shared it. However, reading the bleeped-through version reveals plenty.

Shaffer and others in the military-spying complex knew about U.S. al Qaeda cells and leaders before 9-11 and were prevented from pursuing the matter. Shaffer believes they could have prevented 9-11. He so informed the 9-11 Commission, which ignored him. The Defense Intelligence Agency retaliated against Shaffer for having spoken up. We knew this, but the book adds context and details, and names names.

The bulk of the book is an account of Shaffer's time in Afghanistan in 2003, and the title comes from the name of another aborted mission that Shaffer believes could have and should have captured or killed al Qaeda leaders at that time in Pakistan. Shaffer blames the CIA for screwing up any number of missions, for working with Pakistan which worked with the Taliban and al Qaeda, for counter-productive drone attacks, and for torturing prisoners. He also describes the insanity of General Stanley McChrystal's scheme of sending armed soldiers door-to-door to win hearts and minds and flush out "bad guys."

Shaffer doesn't say whether people he helped capture were tortured, but proudly recounts helping murder people and interrogating people without using torture. He does, however, detail the interrogation he did of a man whom he repeatedly threatened with shipment to Guantanamo. Bleeped out throughout the interrogation are repeated references to what is almost certainly the man's identity as an American.

Shaffer's book describes a web of incompetent rival bureaucracies within the military as well as the overlapping "intelligence community." What's remarkable about this gang of gung-ho heroes and obedient cogs is not that they do so much damage but that any of them remain proud of having been a part of it.

Shaffer sure as hell does. He wants the drones to stop and the war scaled back, but he wants the kind of operations he favors to be pursued under an all-powerful commander in both Afghanistan and Pakistan -- legal niceties be damned -- until military "victory" can compel the negotiation of "peace." The twelve pages of advice on "How to Win in Afghanistan" that Shaffer tacked onto the end of the book, and on the basis which the book has been marketed, is a hodgepodge of contradictory recognition of hopelessness and insistence on prevailing.

This book has it all. And to think that all this nearly perished in the flames[Blacked-out passages are represented below as BLEEEEEEP]:

Models of heroism instilling confidence in our leaders: "On Friday afternoons, three of my friends and I would hop in a car and drive the 100 miles to Tucson, drinking a fifth -- or two -- of vodka along the way. Soon, I was working counterterrorism missions in the United States and Europe while still in the army reserves and having the time of my life. . . . I started having blackouts: I would start drinking in one place, wake up in another place, and not know how I got there. . . . [S]ome of my bosses drank as much as I did."

Deep insights into human motivation: "We'd come halfway around the world to deal with an enemy that cared about nothing but their narrow interpretation of God. They wanted to kill us simply because we did not think like they did."

Dramatic tension and vegetable references: "My team was gonna take to it like an eight-year-old to asparagus. We'd BLEEEEEEEP recruited a scout to help smooth our way with the villagers, but the CIA had maneuvered him out of the picture. Now we were going to be on our own without a native guide. Freakin' CIA."

Exemplary and tragic stands taken on principle: "The CIA, it turned out, was running its own game, a game they didn't bother to coordinate with anyone on the Defense side of the house. At one point, I was to learn later, we had an ugly experience with a warlord who was on their payroll. It was not that they played against both sides. It was the fact that they did it so obviously and poorly that pissed us off."

The worst cliff-hanging ending to a chapter ever: "Shortly after that meeting with Dave, our informants told us of a chilling development. Bearded men, riding on Honda motorcycles, carrying Kalashnikov rifles and satellite telephones, were driving along the trails of the deep, treeless valleys in Zabul province about 100 miles southwest of Bagram. They were on their way."

The worst beginning to the next chapter that could have been conceived of, with or without depicting people as insects or rodents: "The Taliban were reinfesting southeast Afghanistan."

Measured use of violence: "'What is your consideration of collateral damage?' he asked. 'None,' I replied. 'According to our information, there appears to be only true believers present with the target.'"

A keen eye for detail: "For a moment, it was interesting to contemplate the Taliban as a bunch of Fred Flintstones. Nah. I couldn't recall ever seeing a fat Taliban."

Subtle foreshadowing: "The same circumstances would reoccur: coalition and Afghan forces fighting to take ground in hundreds of villages like Deh Chopan throughout the region, holding it long enough to push out the Taliban, and then leaving, only to see the Taliban reemerge in the district unopposed."

Passionate romance: "I had been told by several friends about finding troops 'doing it' in cramped spaces like the small bomb shelters around our tent living area and Porta-Johns. Yeah, Porta-Johns."

Clever imperialist banter: "'Wow,' I said. 'But that's Indian territory.' I gave them the street location. 'It's the heart of where the bad guys are hanging out these days.'"

Realistic unflinching looks at the front lines of the battlefield: "We had to get back to Bagram before dark. Besides, the mess hall served Alaskan king crab on Friday nights, and you had to get there early before it got too rubbery."

Even subtler foreshadowing: "The graveyard sat on a high plain that overlooked Kabul against a backdrop of brown and gray rock mountains. Faded green Soviet vehicles -- T-64 and T-72 tanks, BMP armored personnel carriers, BRDM armored cars, and more -- were stretched out on a tan flat plain as far as the eye could see. Row after row of them."

Inverted literary allusions based on movies: "I thought about Willard's journey up the river and into the 'heart of darkness.' Maybe we were going to have to do something to get at these guys where they lived; the remote area where Kurtz called his home was as remote as Wana to us."

Insights into local customs: "Dave and I put on our 'Hajji hats' -- flat-topped Afghan hats worn by the local men."

Massage cream sources that threaten national security: "I'd never given a massage in a combat zone before, but I dug out some hand cream with lotus flowers that I'd picked up at the BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP and figured it would do in place of massage oil."

Hints of a sequel: "We have to become involved in helping to shape and improve the message of the true Muslim faith."

[seemslikeadream]

I dunno. This almost seems too pat. The whole Wikileaks thing, I mean. It feels like manufactured opposition. Only time will tell.

Able Danger
http://www.911truth.org/tag/able-danger/

Able Danger ties Condi Rice to Chinese espionage! (really!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... 04x4846388

TRUMP TEAM CONSIDERING ANTHONY SHAFFER, CONTROVERSIAL FORMER ARMY OFFICER, FOR SENIOR DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE ROLE
BY JEFF STEIN ON 12/14/16 AT 10:04 PM
Shaffer
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, left, with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn on September 12 at an awards ceremony for the London Center, a New York-based conservative think tank. Shaffer presented Flynn with a leadership award.
THE LONDON CENTER
U.S.DONALD TRUMPMICHAEL FLYNNANTHONY SHAFFER
A former Army colonel at the center of a years-long controversy related to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon may be joining the Trump administration as a senior Defense Department intelligence official.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, 54, said he was invited to join the administration in some capacity, but declined to say who approached him or what the job might be. The position would be at the “senior defense intelligence” level, Shaffer has told associates who asked for anonymity because the discussions were considered private.

“I was asked to put my name in for a job—that's it,” Shaffer said in a brief telephone interview. He is connected to retired Army Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn, the incoming White House National Security Adviser, through their joint service in Afghanistan as well as The London Center, a New York-based conservative think tank where Shaffer is vice president for strategic initiatives and operations. At a banquet in September, Shaffer presented Flynn, a senior fellow at the center, with a leadership award. The center is named after its founder, Herbert I. London, a widely published social critic and one time Conservative Party candidate for mayor of New York.

Shaffer ignited years of Pentagon and congressional investigations a decade ago with his charges that Defense Department suppressed the existence of his top-secret unit’s reports on the 9/11 plotters a year in advance of the attacks. The reason, he said in interviews, congressional testimony and a book, Operation Dark Heart, was that Defense Department officials didn’t want to be blamed for the intelligence failure that tarred other security agencies. The first edition of the book was bought up and pulped by the Pentagon even after reporters had received advance review copies of it. Shaffer’s publisher later issued a heavily censored edition.

A 16-month investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Shaffer’s operation, code-named ABLE DANGER, “did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other 9/11 hijacker at any time prior to September 11, 2001," and dismissed other assertions that have fueled 9/11 conspiracy theories. The Defense Department’s inspector general (DoD OIG) made a similar conclusion.

But Shaffer’s attorney during the probes, Mark Zaid, stands by him. "I personally participated in the DoD OIG investigation of ABLE DANGER, and I was not impressed,” he told Newsweek by email Wednesday. “I saw firsthand how findings and facts were manipulated, and I had several internal sources support that view.” Zaid added that, “Behind the scenes, numerous witnesses supported Tony Shaffer's version of events."

Shaffer and Flynn share out-of-the-box views on some of the most contentious events in recent U.S. foreign policy. In 2012, Shaffer claimed—falsely—that President Obama was "in the White House Situation Room in real-time watching" the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. At the time, Flynn was head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and according to The New York Times, startled aides with an abrupt conclusion that Iran was behind Benghazi. Both assertions turned out to be baseless.

The two have hawkish views on other key issues, particularly Islam. Flynn, who was fired as head of the DIA in 2014 for his inflammatory leadership style, according to several reports, recently tweeted that “fear of Muslims is rational.” Shaffer, likewise, claimed in a November radio interview that “15 to 17 percent” of Middle East and North African refugees “are ISIS," or agents of the Islamic State militant group.

Even the right-wing CounterJihad group had doubts about his assertion. “The figure is shockingly high, which means we should ask how plausible it is,” it said in a blog post, but “he has the right kind of contacts to obtain access to this kind of information.”

Shaffer has also called for banning the Council on American-Islamic Affairs (CAIR), a Washington, D.C.-based group formed in 1994 to “promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America.” CAIR has been a frequent target of conservative activists who allege that it’s a cover for the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

This week Shaffer was active in swatting back charges by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia covertly interfered in the U.S. presidential campaign to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. On Monday he maintained that "the Russians would not benefit” from electing Trump, who has repeatedly said he wants closer relations with Moscow. “There's no upside for a President Trump in the Russian influence in the world," he said in a radio interview. On Wednesday he declared that CIA Director John Brennan “is making stuff up” about the alleged Russian campaign to put Trump in office.

“I was told by folks at the FBI and DoD and on Capitol Hill that no one will back up what Brennan is saying,” Shaffer said in his telephone interview with Newsweek. “They think it’s nonsense.” Democrats, joined by some Republicans, however, have said the CIA’s congressional briefings on Russian interference, disclosed first by The Washington Post, have merit and need further investigation and hearings.

Upping the ante on Wednesday night, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News they had "a high level of confidence" that Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign.

A CIA spokesman declined to discuss the particulars of what the agency knows about the Kremlin’s covert campaign to tilt the election. But a knowledgeable intelligence official told Newsweek over the weekend that the agency was struggling to keep out of the political fray over the explosive charges.

“We're at the center of a Class 5 political hurricane and have been doing everything possible to ensure we are completely nonpartisan and objective,” he said in exchange for anonymity to discuss the current chaos, "knowing that anything we say or do will be spun by individuals on both sides of the aisle.”
http://www.newsweek.com/anthony-shaffer ... nse-532133

Pentagon seeks to buy up & destroy all copies of book

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29430

US Invoked State Secrets to Hide 9/11 Intelligence Faili

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34362&p=521128&hilit=ANTHONY+SHAFFER#p521128

New Peter Dale Scott (July 2013): Bootlegging Al Qaeda
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36973&p=517172&hilit=ANTHONY+SHAFFER#p517172

Court Filings Assert Iran Had Link to 9/11 Attacks
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=32216&p=405619&hilit=ANTHONY+SHAFFER#p405619

Pentagon Destroys Copies of Controversial Memoir
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=29565&p=361946&hilit=ANTHONY+SHAFFER#p361946

March 6 & 7 "TREASON IN AMERICA" CONFERENCE

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=26796&p=314590&hilit=ANTHONY+SHAFFER#p314590

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Anthony Frickin Shaffer. The plot thickens and darkens. And the song remains the same.